AUBURN — This past Thursday, a little more than 24 hours before an exhibition win over Lincoln Memorial, a banner was raised into the rafters at Auburn Arena.

“Auburn men’s basketball, SEC regular season champions, 2018.”

It was hung there without fanfare, just like head coach Bruce Pearl said it would be. The success of last season — the league title, 26 victories, the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2003 — is the success of last season.

This year’s Tigers, who enter the 2018-19 season ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25 poll and No. 12 in the coaches poll, want to look forward. That starts with a difficult first week, which features a Tuesday night season opener against South Alabama and a Friday home date with No. 25 Washington.

“I told our guys, I said, if we're good enough to win this week, we're good enough to go to Maui and play with the teams we're gonna play with out there,” Pearl said, referring to the Nov. 19-21 Maui Invitational that also features Xavier, Duke, San Diego State, Arizona, Iowa State, Gonzaga and Illinois in a power-packed field.

“These two teams this week, are gonna give us a real barometer. I know you would expect that about Washington, you might not expect that about South Alabama, but just trust me on that.”

Beating either one of those teams might require a better performance than the one Auburn had in its 76-62 win in a tune-up against the Railsplitters four days ago.

"I was pleased with Friday night from the standpoint of Lincoln Memorial challenged us, exposed some things," Pearl said. "I didn’t think we played particularly well or effectively, but at least we got exposed. Now, is that exposure in time to get us where we need to be to be able to win a game tomorrow? We’re going to find out."

Here are three things to watch for in Auburn’s season opener Tuesday against South Alabama:

1) Doughty’s debut

Sunday brought a bit of good news for Auburn.

Guard Samir Doughty, who had been sidelined since Oct. 23 and did not play in Friday’s exhibition win over Lincoln Memorial, was able to get through a contact practice, making him “likely” to play against the Jaguars.

The VCU transfer should be able to provide needed depth for Auburn, which had eight players on the court for more than one minute in Friday’s exhibition and will not have one of those — forward Danjel Purifoy — available Tuesday.

Purifoy isn’t eligible to make his regular season debut until Dec. 9 against UAB in Birmingham. Center Austin Wiley (left foot) did not practice Sunday and remains out, but Pearl said there’s a possibility he could return later this week or next.

Doughty, who can play either guard spot or small forward for Auburn, averaged nine points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game for VCU as a freshman during the 2016-17 season, though it may take him some time to get up to speed with the Tigers.

“He’s going to be close to whatever percent he’s going to be physically, but the whole learning curve, all that we’ve done in three or four weeks without him, all the experiences — he didn’t play in our exhibition game, he didn’t play in our scrimmage, he’s missed the last couple — he’s behind,” Pearl said. “We’ll get him caught up. It’s great to have him back. Long-term, it’s going to make us a much better basketball team. Again, it’s just trying to put it all together here early in the season.”

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨MEET YOUR NONCONFRIENDS🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

Auburn opens the 2018-19 season against South Alabama tonight at 8 p.m. CT. A little more about the Jaguars: pic.twitter.com/y5vIwnO246

2) A suddenly unfamiliar foe

When Pearl originally put South Alabama on the schedule, it was because he knew what he was getting into.

Matthew Graves had been the head coach there since 2013, and Pearl knew him from his time at Butler, where he was an assistant from 2000-13. But the Jaguars made a coaching change following the 2017-18 season, replacing Graves with Richie Riley.

The Jaguars return 83 percent of their offense from last season, but the only tape Pearl has to watch on them is from a 63-40 exhibition win over Tuskegee on Oct. 27.

“I’ve got a new coach with a new style that I’ve not played against, that I have no history with, and it’s the opener,” Pearl said. “South Alabama could look at Auburn and they could look at four years and they’re going to see Auburn. Auburn’s Auburn. I’ve been there four years. We do what we do. I’m old. He’s young. They do different things. They do new things. They do good things. But I don’t know what they’re going to do, just because it’s not what I’ve kind of prepared for. So that’s going to make it especially challenging.”

Auburn is 5-4 in the all-time series with South Alabama and has won the last two games, but the teams haven't met on the court since 2006.

3) One last go around

Bryce Brown has a feeling he’s going to come out for Tuesday’s game against the Jaguars “probably more fired up than I ever have been.”

The senior shooting guard knows this will be his final season on the court in an Auburn uniform, his “last go around with my guys, my brothers.”

He enters it in with much different individual circumstances, not to mention the Tigers’ team success. Brown was a breakout star as a junior, averaging a career-best 15.9 points per game on 40.1 percent shooting while making a near-school-record 107 3-pointers.

But that was after he averaged career-low 7.5 points per game on 36-percent shooting as a sophomore. This year, Brown, a first-team AP All-SEC selection last season and preseason second-team All-SEC pick last month, will open the season as a known commodity.

“I know the scouting report is run him off the line, try to push up on him so he can’t get easy 3s,” Brown said. “So I feel like that’s going to be one of the focal points I’m going to have to focus on this year. I’ve been improving my ball handling, my athleticism, and all that’s just going to help me become a more complete player and help the team.”